


The Poodle Mix

by dontbitethesun



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dog(s), Domestic, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-10
Updated: 2012-06-10
Packaged: 2017-11-07 10:25:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/430014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontbitethesun/pseuds/dontbitethesun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas brings home a dog.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Poodle Mix

"I think we should get a dog,” Cas says without preamble one morning once he’s home again after the eight o’clock class he teaches on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As an assistant professor of history at the local college, his schedule is much more varied than Dean’s - who didn’t get home until well after one am last night after working the four to midnight shift as an operator at the local 911 dispatch when Cas was already in bed asleep. On Fridays, Cas holds office hours and teaches a night class that more closely matches with Dean’s schedule. Mondays and Wednesdays he keeps his own hours, grading papers and doing his own research.

“What? No,” Dean answers without even looking up from his paper, still sleepy even though the morning has nearly turned into afternoon. He reaches out absently for the coffee Cas brought him and Cas places it in his hand.

“Statistics show that people who have pets live longer, healthier lives,” Cas states.

“Uh-huh,” Dean answers distractedly.

“Are you done with the sports section?” Cas asks casually.

“Yeah,” Dean says, pushing it over. Cas reaches over to lift it off the table, but Dean pauses, holding the paper down. “Wait,” he says, turning his full attention on Cas and eyeing him warily. “Since when do you read the sports section?”

Cas smiles weakly at him in answer.

Dean pales. “Tell me you didn't,” he demands.

“Surprise,” Cas says, giving Dean a broad smile.

*

The puppy is a pale cream with soft curls, all feet and tongue and exuberance. Cas had shut him up in the bathroom, and now takes him out to bring him to the kitchen to meet Dean.

“He’s part poodle, and part something else, the shelter wasn’t really sure,” Cas volunteers as the dog immediately begins to sniff around everything – all the cabinets and every corner. Cas has him leashed still so he can’t go far enough to leave the room. “Maybe a few something elses. They assured me that poodle mixes are very popular these days as they don’t shed very much.”

Dean absolutely refuses to be charmed by the beast. It's not that he dislikes animals in general or dogs in particular, he just has absolutely no desire to own one after the two weeks he'd spent dog-sitting his brother's puppy - a beast of a dog that Dean still refers to as "that miserable creature" despite Sam’s repeated insistence his name is Bones – a visit that included a chewed sneaker, incessant barking well into the night, walks in which the exuberant creature tried to pull Dean’s arm out of it’s socket from pulling so hard on his leash in an attempt to chase after anything and everything, and ended with the dog up-chucking in the backseat of his beloved Impala when Dean drove him back home. 

“Please explain to me how between 7:30 am when you left to teach your class and now at 11:17 you managed to get a dog?” Dean asks.

“Reginald,” Cas answers.

“Reginald?” Dean repeats. “Is that the name of one of your students? Did one of your students give you a dog to get a better grade?”

“No, that's the dog’s name,” Cas answers patiently. “It’s very austere, don’t you think?”

“It’s downright royal,” Dean responds dryly, although he’s not actually sure if that’s true or not. Cas, being the history geek that he is, would know, but there are more important things on Dean’s mind. “Now answer the damn question.”

“Well,” Cas begins, “I was walking to the coffee shop and they were running a pet adoption drive at the veterinarian’s office a few blocks down, and there he was. He just looked so sad and alone, huddled in the corner of his cage all by himself.”

He does not, Dean notes, look at all sad now, chewing happily on an edge of the newspaper that Cas had put down for him, his little tail wagging in wide, happy arcs.

“I’ve always wanted a dog,” Cas continues, “even though my parents weren't fond of animals. I could have gotten one before I suppose, but I always thought that the rigors of college and grad school took up too much of my attention to keep a pet. But now that I'm teaching, and we've settled down, it just seemed like the right time.” He gives Dean a pleading look.

Dean sighs. “I just wished you'd asked me about it first,” he scolds. “I have a cell phone, you know, and so do you.”

“Just because of that one bad experience you had with Sam’s dog-“

“My car reeked for a week,” Dean mumbles under his breath.

“-that doesn't mean the same thing will happen with Reginald. He’s very well behaved already. With just a little more training, he’ll be perfectly civil…” he trails of before adding “and I just couldn’t resist,” turning towards Reginald with a soft smile as he strokes the soft downy fur behind his ears.

It’s the smile that does Dean in. It’s a look of pure adoration, and Dean knows beyond a doubt that Cas is already in love with the dog and since Dean is pretty deeply in love with Cas too, he doesn’t want to do anything that would upset him, which taking the dog away would obviously do. The dog, it seems, stays. Dean reaches over to give him a reluctant pat.

Just because he’s already decided doesn’t mean that Dean has make it look like he to gave in so easily. He heaves a large, put-upon sigh and says. “We're going to have to set some ground rules,” he announces.

Cas turns the look of adoration on Dean and positively beams at him. Dean could get lost in the smile, and almost does – nearly forgetting rule number 1. But Dean loves his baby almost as much as Cas loves his stupid new dog already, so it doesn’t stop him from saying, “Rule 1, he never, ever goes in the Impala. He has to go to vet, you take him in that horrible foreign thing you drive, yes,” Dean holds up a hand to forestall Cas’ inevitable protest, “it gets remarkable gas mileage. That does not make it attractive.

“Rule 2, potty training is your job, as are bathing, cleaning up after him, and otherwise keeping him out of trouble.” Cas is nodding along as Dean continues. “And finally, rule 3, the dog does not sleep in the bed.”

“I find these terms acceptable,” Cas answers. “Perhaps we should shake on it?”

“What?” Dean asks, because that’s not something they’ve ever done before.

Cas holds out his hand to the dog. “Shake, Reginald,” he orders. Reginald doesn’t move a single paw. He stares at Cas curiously for a second before flopping down on his newspapers and closing his eyes to sleep.

“Obviously he’ll need some training if we want him to do tricks,” Cas says, a faint blush coloring his cheeks and Dean bursts out laughing. He thinks maybe this dog thing won’t be so bad after all.

*

The weeks pass and Reginald fits into their lives as if he’d always been there. Dean tries to call him Reggie, but the dog had had that ridiculous name well before Cas brought him home, and he doesn’t respond to Dean’s nickname. Cas takes care of the potty training while Dean covers the rest of his training, first the most important of all, the big N-O, then to come when called, sit, and even a few tricks. He is very well behaved – or civil as Cas had put it – which is good, because he’s shaping up to be a big dog. They feed him his puppy chow and he just grows and grows and grows. Cas checks out every dog book he can find at their local library and is a well of information about what Reginald is doing and why.

“Standard poodles are actually fairly large,” Cas explains when Dean mentions he thought poodles were usually small, “and I think there’s a little retriever in him too.”

The rest of the rules hold true as well. He’d come to them already neutered and with his rabies shot, but he did need to take one trip to the vet for the rest of his shots to be administered and he rides there and back in Cas’ car.

As for the third rule, Reginald generally sleeps curled up on the floor by Cas’ side of the bed, on a rug that Cas put down especially for him.

(Dean insists on shutting him out of the bedroom when they’re having sex, a behavior Cas finds amusing.

“He’s not sentient,” Cas argues. “It’s not like he’s a voyeur who likes to watch us get it on. He’s just a dog that finds it comforting to be near his people.”

“It just freaks me out, okay,” Dean says, placing a well-timed bite on Cas’ left nipple that ends the conversation for the time being.)

This all changes, however, when Cas goes away for a long weekend to a conference.

“I can’t not go,” Cas says when Dean pouts. “I’m presenting.”

Despite knowing that this is one of those things Cas has to do if he wants tenure, Dean doesn’t have to like it. When his frown doesn’t go away, Cas brushes it away with a quick kiss.

“Reginald’s going to be sad you know. He’ll probably cry at the door when you leave,” Dean argues.

Cas just smiles and says, “Then you’ll just have to comfort him, won’t you?”

The first night’s isn’t so hard. Dean works his regular shift and is exhausted enough when he falls into bed that night that he falls instantly to sleep without sparing a thought for why the bed feels so cold and empty. The next night, though, is harder. He usually has Saturdays and Sundays off and he hates that he has to spend this day alone when normally he and Cas would catch up on household chores, maybe go out for dinner or a movie, and just generally be together.

Reginald clearly misses Cas too. He won’t touch his favorite toy and he only eats half of his dinner, spending the rest of the time staring wistfully at the door. Dean gives him a slice of cheese from his own sandwich and decides to turn in early. Reginald pads softly after, curling up on the floor by Dean’s side of the bed despite the lack of a soft rug on the hardwood surface.

Though Dean had been hesitant about having a dog from the get-go, he’s come to enjoy having Reginald around, despite a few minor reservations.

Such as, “it's just that you’re not even a manly dog, you know. You're a _poodle_ ,” Dean mentions to him casually. He feels silly talking to a dog, but he’s lonely and he already talked to Cas twice today and he’s not about to call Sam, who would mock him endless for missing Cas for just a weekend, and besides, he doesn’t want to bother him. Sam and his girlfriend met in undergrad, but now they both go to different grad schools, spending the week apart before one or the other drives the 100 miles or so so that they can spend their weekends together.

Reginald doesn’t mock, just wags his tail and looks up at Dean with soulful eyes.

Dean grudgingly gives his head a pat and scratches behind his ears. “But you love Cas, and I miss him.”

Later, after Dean’s turned off the light and resigned himself to a mostly sleepless, lonely night, Reginald sneaks up onto the bed and Dean doesn’t even order him down.

*

“Ugh,” Dean groans the next morning, regretting his decision to let the dog stay on the bed when all 60 pounds of him are perched on Dean’s chest, his tail whipping back and forth patiently as he pants down at Dean’s face, waiting for him to wake up. “Dog breath,” he grumbles, shoving the dog off him and back over to Cas’ side of the bed. 

“What have you been eating in the yard?” he demands, though Reginald of course can’t answer. “Whatever it is, stop.”

Dean still has a few hours before Cas gets home, so he finishes the laundry he’d started the day before, vacuums the living room carpet, then settles down on the couch to read the Sunday paper with Reginald’s chin resting on his knee.

The dog hears the garage door opening before Dean and takes off towards the back door at a run, dancing excitedly in front of it until Cas comes through. Dean, who’d followed Reginald at a much more leisurely pace, waits in the doorway as Cas bends down to pet the happy, squirming ball of fur now rolling all over the kitchen floor.

“Hey,” Cas says to Dean, standing up to shrug out of his trench coat. Dean steps forward to help him out of the coat, noting the dark circles under Cas’ eyes and the tired look in his eyes.

“Hey yourself,” Dean answers. “Long drive?”

“Very. The conference went well,” Cas says. “How did Reginald fare?”

“He was fine,” Dean answers with a smile, “just peachy.” He keeps the fact he’d let the dog sleep on the bed last night to himself. It was not going to be happening again, especially after his stinky doggy breath wake-up call.

“And you?” Cas asks.

“Missed you like crazy,” Dean answers, leaning in for a long, passionate kiss.

“I brought you something,” Cas says as Dean nips at his bottom lip.

“It can wait,” Dean answers, deftly guiding him towards the bedroom and stealing kisses as he maneuvers a distracted Cas around the furniture.

This time, when Dean shuts the door firmly in Reginald’s face, Cas doesn’t say a thing about it. (He does, however, sneak away from Dean’s sleepy grasp later that night to open the door for him, giving Reginald’s soft head a little pad as he pads over to his normal spot on his rug. Cas had, after all, missed the dog almost as much as he’d missed his boyfriend.)

.end


End file.
